It's Personal
by Amezzeray
Summary: Fornell requests the help of Gibb & Co when his Probie goes missing. But the realization that McGee is involved makes them all targets. Rated T just to be safe.
1. Prologue

Fornell requests the help of Gibb & Co when his Probie goes missing. But the realization that McGee is involved makes them all targets.

Hey guys. I am by no means a good writer. I just do this for fun. But I actually do have a plan for this. In my head this is part 1 of a trilogy. But it depends how it goes!!

I own nothing… except for Grace :)

Enjoy x

* * *

It started off as a normal day.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs sat at his desk with his trusted cup of coffee at NCIS HQ on a beautiful Monday afternoon . Himself, Tony DiNozzo, Ziva David and Timothy McGee were quietly getting on with their paper work. It was obvious that they were all pining for a case to be called to. It was probably a sign of things getting better that they weren't being called out to somewhere. But it was bound to happen.

Then Gibb's phone rang.

"Yeah, Gibbs", he said without looking at the caller ID.

"Special Agent Gibbs, please come up to my office", NCIS Director Leon Vance ordered.

"On my way Director"

Gibbs, as per usual, let himself into Vance's office without knocking. He was surprised, but pleased, to see FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell sat at the table with the Director.

"Good to see you Jethro" Fornell said as he stood up to shake Gibbs' hand.

As they all sat down again at the table, Vance dove straight into the topic.

"Special Agent Fornell has been working a case which has lead to their suspect being a former Petty Officer in the Navy. He requested a joint operation to track him down".

Gibbs and Fornell have helped each other out so many times, it was extremely difficult to keep track of the "score". But Gibbs didn't need convincing.

"Sure. What's the case?"

"Grace Evans", Fornell started, as he laid a picture of her on the table in front of Gibbs. "My latest Probie. She didn't turn up for work this morning. This isn't like her Jethro. She's ambitious. A hard worker. After 15 minutes I knew something wasn't right. I sent a team to her apartment and they found it trashed to hell. Forensics found blood, a lot of it. But most of it wasn't hers. One sample belonged to a civilian, Daniel Griffiths" another picture was placed onto the table. "There was enough of his blood for him to need medical attention. All the hospitals in DC have been alerted to watch out for him. Another sample belongs to former Petty Officer Ian Simpson. We hoped you could help us track him down"

"I'll do more than that Tobias, I'll help you find her"

Fornell took a deep breath and fell silent for a moment. "I've had a lot of Probies over the years Jethro. She shows the most promise by a long shot. She reminds me a lot of McGee".

"We'll find her Tobias. Why don't you brief the team while I get some coffee? Lots of it!"

"Sounds good to me" Fornell smiled weakly.

* * *

As Gibbs made his way back to the Squadroom, 2 cups of coffee in tow, he noticed Fornell finishing up with the brief.

"Probie are you okay?" he heard Tony ask.

Gibbs turned to Tim. He stood staring at the screen with Grace's picture on it,. He looked as if he was going to tumble over any second.

"Tim?" Gibbs asked him softly. "What is it?"

A white-faced Tim slowly turned his head and made eye contact with his Boss.

"Boss… that's my girlfriend"


	2. One Hell of a Fight!

Chapter 2

36 hours earlier. Saturday. 2:30am

Tim was sat up in bed reading a book. He felt his eyes beginning to droop, but snapped out of it quickly. He made the decision to get a strong cup of coffee from the kitchen and reluctantly got out of his warm cosy bed to do so.

All that he wanted to do was sleep. The weekend was the only time when he could catch up on his well-earned rest. But he was waiting for Grace to call.

As he was pouring the coffee into his mug, he heard the door click open. He heard the entrant whispering to someone in the hallway.

"Shhh, he's asleep. Yes, yes same time next week. Bye!" she giggled as she attempted to get through the door without making a sound, but failed miserably as she knocked over an umbrella stand.

"Shit!" she said quietly to herself. That was when she noticed Tim standing in the doorway to the kitchen. All the fun and laughter that was on her face as she came through the door disappeared in an instant.

Grace Evans stood timidly in the hallway. Her long, curly hair hiding some parts of her face. She wore a short black dress with high heels, not that they made much difference with her height.

"You didn't have to wait up", she said quietly with her British accent.

"No, I didn't! But I did so in case you needed a ride home!"

"Well I'm here now. We were in the area so I thought I'd stay over", she shrugged but she still noticed the look on Tim's face. "what?"

"there's a reason cell phones exist Grace. In this case it is so that I know you're okay. Just a simply 'Hi! I'm on my way now' would have done!"

"What is your problem?" she asked in exasperation.

Tim sighed. "Okay. It's not just that", he sighed, "Grace, I don't know where this is going. But I think we're drifting apart. We never seem to do stuff together anymore".

"Tim, how many times have I asked you to come out with us?"

"You know that's not my thing Grace"

"So are you telling me that I have to stop doing my thing just so that we can do your boring thing? We have demanding jobs! I need to get drunk every now and then!" she slurred.

"Well, I think you do too much of it. Can't we go back to what we used to do?"

"You mean pizza, movies and missing the end of said movie because we're both so damn tired? Oh okay! If that's ALL you want us to do then we should get right to it. Oh, I remember now! You ain't my mother!" She said quickly with each word raising her voice higher and higher.

"Well God knows you need a good one!" Tim shouted at the top of his voice.

A sharp intake of breath followed by silence.

Tim watched as Grace's eyes began to fill with tears but by the time he realized what he said, the door was already slammed behind her. He went after her.

"I'm sorry Grace! I didn't mean that!"

"Of course you did!" She screamed through the tears. "How could you Tim?" she said as she stopped dead in the lobby.

"It just slipped out"

"Things slip out when you're thinking them Tim"

Tim didn't know what to say and after a moment's silence Grace turned and left the building.

"Wait, at least let me drive you home!"

But she kept going, ignoring the calls of the man she loved… the man that hurt her, behind.

Even when she heard him shout "I love you", something neither of them had said yet, she kept going.

And that was the last time they saw each other.

* * *

After Tim finished the story of when he last saw her, Fornell looked at him in disgust.

"Did she tell you how her mother died McGee?"

Tim swallowed "yes she did"

"And what happened?"

"She committed suicide when Grace was 15"

The whole room fell silent. After deciding Tim was worth more to him alive, Fornell continued.

"Grace had a rough childhood. Born in New York. Her father was murdered when she was 10 and then her mother, a British National moved back to England shortly after. She went deep into depression, got addicted to prescription drugs and slit her wrists for Grace to find when she got home from school. Then it was the local foster home".

McGee cut in, "Grace was by no means gentle-"

"Probie, now is not the time to be talking about your sex life"

"SHUT UP TONY!"

Everyone looked at him, shocked at the outburst. Gibbs partially knew what was going through Tim's head right now. He knew what it was like to love someone and not know if they're safe. Gibbs also knew that it is better for him to vent it out than to keep it all bottled up inside, as long he kept it at a minimum.

"As I was saying" Tim began after shooting a scowling look at Tony, "she knew how to take care of herself. I once let myself into her apartment to surprise her with dinner after a late shift and she took me down" he said smiling at the memory.

This usually would have been the moment that Tony said "sounds about right" but he knew better than that after the outburst. "We're looking at 2 possibilities" Tony said, "either these men, Griffiths and Simpson, followed her home that night and took her for their own personal… ways. Or it was a planned abduction".

Ziva, for the first time, spoke up, "Well none of them have anything related to abduction listed in their records. But both have been connected to people who will pay good money to get the job done".

"Ziva, keep going deeper into their records and their lives for the past year, there could be a clue as to what they're up to and keep an eye on the BOLO. DiNozzo, dig into Grace's past and her family's to see if they pissed anyone off over the last 25 years"

"On it Boss!"

"What do you want me to do?" Tim asked eagerly.

"Stay here McGee. Before we know more, I don't want you leaving the building. Maybe you pissed someone off!" Gibbs suggested. He immediately wished he didn't after seeing the pleading look in his eyes. "I'll find her Tim. I promise"

"I know you will Boss"

"Fornell and I are going to the apartment. I want something when we get back!" he called to the team.

* * *

By the end of the day, the team hadn't come up with much. As Fornell had said, Grace hadn't been an agent long enough to make any enemies. There were no leads on the whereabouts of Griffiths and Simpson and apart form the blood, there was nothing at the apartment that they could work with. Even her laptop came up with nothing! But Gibbs knew one thing for sure: she put up one hell of a fight!

Fornell had told him that the place was trashed, but what he saw was more than that! An entire book/DVD shelf one the floor, glass coffee table smashed, ornaments that had no doubt been used in the fight for her survival were shattered on the carpet, tall lamps she used to slow them down as she prbably ran to the bedroom to get her firearm...

He couldn't help but admire her, even though he had never met her. He then estimated that more than 2 men had to have helped out! Unless they drugged her in some way…

When Gibbs got back, he saw Tim still sat at his desk. He was typing frantically into his keyboard, getting angrier and angrier to the point that he slammed it down so hard onto the desk that some of the keys popped out.

Gibbs looked at his watch: 11pm. "McGee, you should get some sleep"

"How can I sleep at a time like this Boss?" Tim asked incredulously.

"When the time comes you will need to be alert! It could mean the difference between life and death and I don't mean for Grace, but for the whole team! I need you to be alert McGee. And that isn't going to happen if you don't sleep."

Tim stood up, looking slightly defeated, "I'll go down to Abby's lab to sleep". He went to the filing cabinet, got out a fresh set of clothes for tomorrow and made his way to the elevator.

"Good night Boss"

"Night McGee"

A few seconds after the elevator doors closed, Tim's phone rang.

"McGee!"

A distorted voice replied, "I have your girlfriend, do exactly as I say or she dies"

Oh God…


End file.
